Most Catholics have grown up associating nativity scenes with Christmas, so it is hard to imagine that the first nativity scene only appeared about 800 years ago and more than 1200 years after the birth of Christ.  The story of the first nativity scene is actually an important reminder that we are called to be[…]

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, who lived in the 19th century, wrote: “Octavius Augustus, the Roman Emperor, had given peace to the whole empire by conquering his enemies. Nowhere was war heard of, and peace reigned over all the world. The emperor, desiring to know the strength of his empire, and the number of his subjects,[…]